MICHELLE KUCKELMAN

Final Homestead Design Project

Goals Articulation

The goal of my homestead is to provide all yearly food needs for myself and my husband using as few outside inputs as possible. Enhancing soil fertility, creating minimal waste, and recycling nutrients will be a top priority. In addition, community development will be facilitated by sharing any surpluses and encouraging neighbors to visit or volunteer.

Site Analysis

Strengths Challenges

•Slight downward slope to facilitate water movement•Central community location•Good mix of shade and sun areas•Large enough to provide for food needs

•Capturing enough water to self sustain•Pollution from surrounding streets•Some unwanted trees on property

Homestead

Permaculture Principles

Design from Patterns to Details: This has been the overarching theme in designing my homestead. I started with the base map, then did a water analysis, and then the microclimate and circulation analysis. By combining all the layers, I was able to place specific elements of the homestead with much greater ease.

Catch and Store Energy: Solar panels and a green house embody the principle of storing the energy nature provides. The solar panels are used to provide power for the house. In addition to season extension, the greenhouse will provide heating for the house. The greenhouse heats up and the warm air is drawn into the house during winter.

Produce No Waste: “Close links between the yields, surpluses or wastes of each element – and the needs of another – mark a well- organized system.” (Bane, p.33) This quote represents a major goal of my homestead as well as a major problem in our world today. Too often we forget that all elements of a system are connected causing humans to produce massive amounts of useable waste materials. On my homestead, the chickens and compost pile will help recycle food waste. Chickens dine on leftover kitchen scraps while other garden waste and tree leaves will be composted. The chicken’s manure, produced from the kitchen scraps, will then also enter the compost pile to decompose and re-enter the food cycle.

Crops

Annual Vegetables: Currently, vegetables constitute a large portion of my diet, so I have devoted a large garden space to them. In my previous food needs analysis, I determined my primary vegetable crops would be the following:

Broccoli Carrots Potatoes Sweet potatoes Corn Green beans

Okra Peppers Garlic Tomatoes Onion

Some of these deter pests, some can be stored for long periods, some can be frozen or canned, and some are best fresh. A wide variety will ensure that my family has something to eat throughout the season and even in the face of environmental stressors. Bane stresses the importance of plant diversity to ensure productivity and even survival of plant species in our ever changing global climate (p.225 & 226)

Crops

Legumes: My husband and I are vegetarian, so beans are a very important source of protein for us. In addition, they can be stored dry through the winter. I will grow the following types: Black beans Pinto beans Red kidney beans Cow peas (black-eyed peas)

Crops

Fruit orchard: I used semi-dwarfing fruit trees to create a small orchard with five trees in it. Bane notes that some good fruit trees for my hardiness zone (8) are peach, fig, and persimmon (p. 324).

Berries: Berries are a staple of my diet when they are in season. I know that blueberries and blackberries grow well here but I would also like to try strawberries. A surplus of berries could allow for a U-pick where community members harvest fresh fruit.

Melon/ squash patch: This area will provide necessary food for my family and also an opportunity for community. I purposely dedicated a larger than necessary plot to these crops to allow friends and neighbors to come join in the harvest.

Crops

I believe that with conscientious land management choices, such as crop rotation, adding compost, and using cover crops, the land can support all the crops I plan to grow. I used my previous food needs analysis to calculate how many square feet of beds would be necessary and then added some room just to be safe.

Nutrient Cycling

Kitchen Scraps

Manure

COVER CROPS

Nutrient Cycling

I hope to cycle all necessary nutrients within my own farming system. As the previous diagram showed, chicken manure, compost, and cover crops will provide nutrients to the main crops. Chicken manure will first be added to the compost to decompose and be sanitized. The compost pile will also contain leaves, grass clippings, crop residues, and kitchen scraps. Cover crops, grown in between main crops, will add nutrients such as nitrogen back to the soil. When their time is over, the cover crop will either be incorporated into the soil or used as mulch to plant the next crop into.

Integration and Connection

The nutrient cycling system just mentioned is a great example of interconnection within the system. Some other examples are: Water:

Rain water roof catchment system waters plants on south end of property. Its overflow is to the pond that stores water and provides for the north end of the property. Overflow from the pond is to a swale. All of these elements combine to make crop production possible.

Plant variety: Much of my pest, disease, and weed management will be

done by strategically placing plants. Every plant has specific properties that when combined with other plants can be beneficial. All of my garden spatial arrangements will integrate many varieties of plants with careful consideration to enhance the benefits of each plant.

Social Connection

Community connectedness is very important and is manifested in several elements of my homestead. Visitor entrance: This entrance is at the opposite end of the

property from the house, providing privacy for myself while still allowing visitors access to the orchard, berry patch, and melon/squash patch. There is free public parking along the street at the north of the property and a large parking lot across the street on the west side.

Abundance: I purposely created enough area to grow a surplus of berries and melons/ squash. This creates opportunity for a U-pick or even a pumpkin patch in the fall. While there would only be enough produce for a small number of visitors, this would encourage learning, community, and personal involvement in food acquisition.